OUT OF ORDER
Don plans for vaccine that doesn’t exist yet
There’s no COVID-19 vaccine yet, but the Trump administration is already rolling out distribution plans anyway.
The Department of Health and Human Services unveiled a private-public partnership on Friday that aims to get COVID-19 shots to nursing home residents as soon as federal regulators approve a vaccine.
Under the plan, trained staff from CVS and Walgreens, two of the country’s largest pharmaceutical chains, will deliver the vaccine to nursing homes across the country and administer shots. Assisted-living facilities and residential group homes can also participate in the voluntary program.
Residents won’t have to pay for the shots, according to HHS. Needles, syringes and other necessary equipment will also be free of charge, the department said.
“My message to American seniors today is one of optimism, confidence and hope,” President Trump said while announcing the plan during an event in Florida. “Your sacrifice has not been in vain. The light at the end of the tunnel is near.”
The plan is, of course, contingent on a COVID-19 vaccine getting the green light from the Food and Drug Administration.
After insisting for months that a vaccine would be ready by Election Day, Trump has recently conceded that the vaccine likely won’t be approved by the FDA until late 2020 or early 2021.
Earlier this week, Johnson & Johnson, one of the U.S. pharmaceutical giants working on a vaccine, put its clinical trials on pause after an unexplained illness appeared in a volunteer.
Trump, who’s trailing Joe Biden badly in the polls with less than three weeks to go until Election Day, appeared to want to shuffle some blame during the Friday event for the likelihood that a vaccine won’t be ready to roll for several more months.
“We are counting on you,” he told Alex Azar, the secretary of HHS, who joined him at the event. “I’m going to blame him if this stuff doesn’t happen fast.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit American seniors particularly hard.
Nursing home residents only account for roughly 1% of the American population. Still, they account for 40% of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S., with more than 83,600 fatalities recorded as of Friday. In New York alone, more than 6,600 people have died from COVID-19 in nursing homes, according to the State Department of Health data.
At 74, Trump is himself a senior. He contracted COVID-19 earlier this month, but appears to have recovered fully after being given some of the best medical treatment in the world while being hospitalized at Walter Reed Medical Center.
More than 218,000 Americans have died from the virus, and infection rates are back on the rise in several states that rushed to reopen their economies.
Nonetheless, Trump, who has consistently downplayed the severity of the pandemic
I’m going to blame him if this stuff doesn’t happen fast
PRESIDENT TRUMP, REFERRING TO ALEX AZAR, HIS HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY.